Finding Opportunities in Denver's Housing Market
When you type in "Denver Housing Market" into Google, you're going to see some pretty alarming headlines. Low inventory, rising home prices, shortening days on market... it doesn't look or feel good to be a buyer right now. But here's the thing - while the headlines are pushing out some pretty deterring stuff, buyers are going under contract at the very same time.
Today we are going to share the opportunities we see in our housing market with the hopes that you press on and push through the headlines to find your way to financial stability + owning your own home!
Opportunity #1: More Homes are Hitting the Market
In just one week, homes in the "Coming Soon" status jumped 8.4% from the prior week (and up 4.5% from where we were one year ago)! Last week we had 1100 active homes on the market and this week we now have 1400 going into the weekend. Seeing these rising statistics means that both buyers and sellers are heading onto our market earlier this year and our spring season will continue from now until about June. With the odds of selling at 86.4% (the highest it has everbeen), more sellers are going to start putting their homes up for sale in the next 2 to 3 months.
Bottom Line: Buyers who jump into this market as soon as possible will give themselves the advantage of an extended timeline to go through their preapproval process, start seeing homes in person, make offers, and get under contract.
Opportunity #2: Denver's Demand isn't Going Anywhere
Denver is one of the fast-growing metropolitan areas and continues to hit record highs for employment, economy, and growth. High demand and low inventory (we are only sitting at 3.7% of the inventory required to offset demand) means in the next 3-5 years it will still not be possible for the city to add the 50,000+ housing units they need to balance the market. There just isn't enough time and resources to make that happen.
Let's say you buy a home right now and you decided to sell in 3-5 years. When it's time to sell you will still have a very strong demand for people wanting to buy your house AND you will take advantage of appreciation, a low interest rate, and years of equity gains at the same time.
Bottom Line: Buying a home right now continues to be a good investment. In this market, buying a home and holding it for the next 3-5 years (or more) will give you a massive advantage when it's time to sell.
Opportunity #3: Houses Are Still Affordable
At this very moment, interest rates are still low. Rates 4% and under are still incredibly good and the low rates are keeping buyers in this market. What's important to note is inflation is raising costs across all industries. The costs of food, oil, gas, and goods are all going up which means varied expenses in our monthly budgets are continuing to go up. So how do you find financial stability if all of these costs are rising? You lock in your largest expense. By buying a home now, you lock in a monthly payment - typically the largest part of your fixed expenses budget - and create a buffer for rising varying expenses.
Bottom Line: Locking in your housing payment, which is typically your largest expense on a monthly basis, will provide you with a huge amount of stability when it comes to varying and fixed expenses.
*All Denver Real Estate Market Information graciously provided by
Megan Aller, First American Title Company.
